Hewlett-Packard has also entered the X Terminal market with what it claims to be the first family of X Terminal products from a major manufacturer. The 700/X family consists of colour and monochrome X terminals using an Intel 80C86 processor and a 50MHz TM34010 graphics chip from Texas Instruments Inc. The terminals are positioned as complementary low-end products to the Hewlett-Apollo range of workstations, and as high end additions to the company’s HP700 Series ASCII terminal range. They come in 14, 640 by 480, and 16 and 20 1,024 by 768 colour versions are available, and a 19 1,024 by 768 monochrome version. Prices, expected to range from $3,000 to $5,000, should be around half the price of a similarly-configured diskless workstation. Hewlett says the decision to go for the X Window market was entirely customer led, and it expects sales in the engineering, software engineering and financial markets. DEC is expected to challenge Hewlett with its own range of X terminals in the near future, while Data General has already introduced its first machine. The X stations will be available in the first quarter 1990.
